Music Promoter Harvey Goldsmith: ‘Live Aid Killed Creativity in the Music Business’

While there’s no doubt Live Aid, the huge fundraising concert, first organized by Harvey Goldsmith and Bob Geldof in 1985, proved that musicians were prepared to use their global reach for good reasons, it also birthed the era of the “celebrity musician,” said Goldsmith.

“Live Aid was the start of the rot that killed the creative juices of great bands and great talent and turned them into pop stars and celebrity-based stars,” he explained.

“Before Live Aid, national newspapers only ever talked about rock music and musicians if they’d been busted or there was a divorce. Suddenly, newspapers realized they could sell newspapers off the back of our business and the whole era of the celebrity artist started to become important.”